Lecture 38: French Art in the 18

th Century

French Art in the 18th Century .........................................................

Lecture 38

After Watteau, French art developed in various ways, its styles

reÀ ecting the much-changed atmosphere of the court of Louis XV and

the increasing importance of the middle class.

I

n this lecture, we look at variations to be found within the Rococo style,

from the serious still lifes and genre pictures of Chardin to the frivolity

of Boucher and Fragonard. We also touch brieÀ y on Rococo architecture

and the style as seen outside of France.

As we saw at the end of the last lecture, Antoine Watteau offered a melancholy

prologue to the art of 18th-century France, one that reÀ ected the profound

sense of uncertainty that followed the death of the Sun King. After Watteau,

French art developed in various ways, its styles reÀ ecting both the much-

changed atmosphere of the court of Louis XV and the increasing importance

of the middle class. Although 18th-century French art is most often designated

Rococo, a style that certainly springs in part from Watteau, many historians

prefer not to apply the term to Watteau himself. His characteristic nostalgia

seems too far removed from the thoughtless sensuality of François Boucher,

for example, to be de¿ ned by the same term.

Another painter whose art is even less well served by the Rococo label is

Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (1699–1779). A superb painter of still life

and genre pictures, Chardin has always been esteemed by connoisseurs,

collectors, and artists. We see ¿ rst his Soap Bubbles (1733–1734), one of

several paintings on the same subject. A boy, nearly a young man, is shown

blowing a large soap bubble through a straw while leaning on a stone

windowsill. Behind the young man, a small child peers over the sill, rapt

in the moment before the bubble bursts. This subject was not new, and its

meaning was well known. The transitory nature of the soap bubble had long

been regarded as a metaphor for the brevity of youth and the brevity of life

itself. The bubble-blower already seems to be mature, and his demeanor is

serious and concentrated; his pose is stable and tightly constructed.